George W. Carpenter, John Lee Allaman, and Milo Irwin
Compiled by Randolph Roth
October 2009 version
The following data on homicide in Illinois were compiled by Randolph Roth for his study of American Homicide (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009). The data are from three counties.
Calhoun County
The data on homicide in Calhoun County, Illinois, are from:
Carpenter, George W. 1981. "I Want to See a Lawyer": Murder in Calhoun, 1821-1981 and the Story of Our Calhoun Court Systems in the Past 160 Years. Hardin, Illinois: by the author.
Carpenter studies the county court and the homicide cases that came before it. He relies for the most part on court records.
Henderson County
The data on homicide in Henderson County, Illinois, are from:
Allaman, John Lee (1989) Nineteenth Century Homicide in Henderson County, Illinois: A Study of Court Records and the Press Media as Reliable Sources for Writing Local History. Ph.D. dissertation: Illinois State University.
Allaman’s dissertation examines multiple sources (legal records, newspapers, diaries, local histories, etc.) to describe the homicides that occurred in Henderson County.
Williamson County
The data on homicide in Williamson County, Illinois, 1812-1875, are from:
Erwin, Milo (1876) The History of Williamson County, Illinois. Marion: n.p. Reprint (1976) Marion: Williamson County Historical Society.
Erwin’s history consults court records, newspapers, and oral sources to reconstruct the history of homicide in the county.
The following files are available
Worksheets
- Henderson County homicides [doc], 1830-1900
Text file of original document
- Williamson County homicides [doc], 1812-1875, from Milo Erwin (1876)
Spreadsheets
- Calhoun, Henderson, and Williamson County homicides [csv]
- Calhoun, Henderson, and Williamson County homicides [xls]
[csv] - Some links on this page are to .csv files requiring the use of a database program. If you need these files in a more accessible format, please contact cjrc@osu.edu.
[doc] - Some links on this page are to Microsoft .doc files requiring the use of Microsoft Word. If you need these files in a more accessible format, please contact cjrc@osu.edu.
[xls] - Some links on this page are to Microsoft .xls files requiring the use of Microsoft Excel. If you need these files in a more accessible format, please contact cjrc@osu.edu.